5 Likely to Vie for 3 Seats On Healdsburg City Council

on Nov. 2 should be an interesting one, with the entry of three new contenders along with two incumbents seeking re-election.

Local school board races -- Healdsburg Unified School District and Alexander Valley Union School District -- also are fielding candidates, but none of the seats are contested.

As of Friday's filing deadline, four people have filed papers to run for Healdsburg City Council, according to City Clerk Maria Curiel:

--Incumbent Mayor Gary Plass, a former Healdsburg Police sergeant, currently working as a real estate agent.

--Incumbent City Councilman Tom Chambers, a businessman in an optical coating company in Santa Rosa.

--Former Healdsburg Planning Commissioner Vern Simmons.

--Shaun McCaffery, a former City Council candidate and mechanical engineer who has worked on numerous civic projects, including those with the and the

A fifth candidate, Dennis James Brown, had not yet filed by Friday, but his deadline was extended to Wednesday.

Although he hasn't filed yet, Brown has pulled the papers and said he intends to run.

"It's always been my goal to get into government," said Brown, who is chief of medical imaging services for the State of California Correctional Division in Sacramento.

"I'm a problem-solver person," Brown said. "I like to solve problems -- and what better place to do it than government?"

State election law allows an extension to Aug. 15 if an incumbent choses not to run for re-election. That is the case in Healdsburg, where incumbent City Councilman Steven Babb, a former Healdsburg Fire Captain, has declined to seek re-election. 

to fill the unexpired term of North Sonoma after McGuire won election to the county board.

In the school board races, all three incumbent members of the Healdsburg Unified School District board whose terms are expiring have filed for re-election:

--Edward "Ted" Crowell.

--Judy Velasquez.

--Genevieve Llerena.

In the Alexander Valley Union School District board, two seats are open, and two people have filed:

--Incumbent Annie Holden is running for re-election.

--Yvonne Kreck, a small business owner, is running to fill the seat vacated by incumbent Dan Winberg, who has declined to seek re-election.